“Hot Tub Monkeys” Offer Eye on Nonhuman “Culture”

When Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) began receiving food handouts more than 50 years ago- freeing them from the daily grind of foraging for food-they invented "cultural activities" to fill their newly acquired leisure time, researchers say.

Stone-play, hot-tubbing in volcanic springs, and potato and wheat washings have all become mainstay behaviors within various troops of macaques around Japan that are still given daily food provisions at research stations. Half a century later many of these behaviors persist and are the subject of studies exploring nonhuman primate culture.